Canada’s Terrorism Agency Monitored Protest of Conservative Party Youth Convention

Canada's terrorism monitor issued a threat assessment over a planned protest of the governing Conservative Party's youth wing in 2012, confidential documents show.

The threat alert, issued by the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (ITAC), concerned a planned demonstration by the Convergence des Luttes Anticapitalistes (CLAC) outside the Conservative Youth Conference in March 2012.

The document raises questions about why the federal government monitored a protest planned at a partisan gathering for Canada's governing party.

Increased scrutiny has been placed on Canada's spy agencies in recent months, as Ottawa has expanded the ability for intelligence agencies to surveil, infiltrate, and share information on groups deemed to be a threat to the security of Canada.

Throughout the debate over C-51, the controversial anti-terrorism legislation that has been decried by constitutional and security experts alike for its sweeping language, the government maintained that spy agencies do not, and would not, monitor or collect information on peaceful or lawful protesters.

Nothing in the threat alert suggests that there would be any threats of violence.

"CLAC has posted on its web site a call for supporters, activists and other of like-mind to gather outside the Delta Hotel" the threat alert reads. "This call has been posted to a variety of anti-capitalist and anarchist group web sites and is expected to spread over social media."

A Facebook event set up by the CLAC invited protesters to take to the streets outside the hotel.

"The political apparatus of the Conservative Party never sets foot in Montréal. It is inevitable that this event will receive an enormous amount of media coverage," the event description reads. "Let's give them the welcome they deserve!"

Sections of the threat alert, which were redacted in English but not in French, read that "the CLAC affirms that the Conservative Party of Canada rarely sets foot in Quebec and that it plans on giving them a welcoming they deserve and that media will certainly be there."

The French-language assessment continues that CLAC employs black bloc tactics and that it has been known to commit acts of vandalism. "The CLAC prudently avoids using language that could qualify as provocative," it concludes.

"ITAC continues to surveil the situation and will update as needed," reads the last non-redacted sentence.

ITAC relies heavily on open source intelligence—information that can be obtained online or through media reports—though also relies on reporting from its parent agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), as well as other police and intelligence agencies. Any proprietary intelligence would be redacted in the version of the documents provided to VICE.

The centre reports generally focus on threats from groups like al-Qaeda and Islamic State-inspired actors, and only occasionally report on protests planned by anarchist, environmentalist, or other ideological groups. Those reports are passed through the service and may form part of briefings that are given to the Minister of Public Safety and, eventually, the prime minister.

The reporting agency has previously faced criticism for monitoring and infiltrating left-wing organizations in advance of larger events, like the G20 summit in Toronto.

Local Montreal police regularly monitor and supervise protests from groups like the CLAC, while a host of other government agencies handle everything from major traffic or transportation disruptions, and any possible threats to Canadian politicians.

CSIS' own legal mandate forbids it from monitoring "lawful advocacy, protest or dissent," unless it has reasonable grounds to suspect that those activities may constitute "serious violence against persons or property for the purpose of achieving a political, religious or ideological objective."

But the agency's work, usually shrouded in secret, has taken an unusually high profile in the course of the current federal election campaign. Between C-51, reports of domestic surveillance, and the revelations published by Edward Snowden, the agency's work finds itself under a microscope.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has rigorously defended CSIS, and his decision to afford them new investigation powers.

"The threat we face today is not CSIS, it is ISIS," Harper said during a televised leaders debate in late September.

Opposition leader Thomas Mulcair has been a vocal critic of the bill, attacking both Harper and third-party leader Justin Trudeau for supporting the new spy powers.

"Sharing information on peaceful protests? That's fair? You want to stand up for that? You voted for that. Going against basic rights and freedoms? You voted for that," Mulcair hammered at Trudeau during the debate.

ITAC reports, in general, do not follow domestic protest movements unless they become large enough to disrupt social order or pose the risk for violence. In hundreds of pages of ITAC reports obtained by VICE through Access to Information request, there are no other mention of stand-alone protests such as the 2012 demonstration. ITAC did, however, prepare briefings around the Idle No More indigenous protests, the 2012 student protest movement in Montreal, Occupy Wall Street, activism around the Vancouver Olympics, and demonstrations focused on the G8 and G20 summits in Ontario.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who had won his first majority government just months prior, was not in attendance for the event. Several Members of Parliament and Senators, as the report notes, did deliver speeches at the event throughout the day.

The agency does regularly focus on "black bloc" style protests, which the CLAC has employed in the past.

"Anarchist groups are the most inclined to call a black block—which in concrete terms means a willingness to break the law, destroy property and/or otherwise engage law enforcement authorities," one 2010 threat assessment reads, continuing that the tactics "are violent activities ranging from vandalism and theft to throwing projectiles and assaulting police."

The protest, in the end, constituted "two or three dozen protesters," according to a CTV news report, and disbanded after a few hours with no reports or violence or arrest.

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